Airbnb can't make up its mind if it's a friend or enemy of hotels

Airbnb may be a disruptor, but it doesn't consider itself a sworn
enemy of the hotel industry, said its CEO Brian Chesky.

"We'd be open to partnering with them," Chesky said on-stage at
the Fortune Global Forum. "We're not an anti-hotel brand. We're
another alternative way to travel."

Executives from Marriott and Starwood are on "very, very
friendly" terms with the startup, Chesky added.

Last week,
Hilton's CEO Chris Nasetta said he does not think the startup
is a "major threat" to its business. Like Chesky, Nasetta
described Hilton and Airbnb as two businesses going after
different customers.

Indeed, some hotel companies have even begun partnerships with
other home-sharing company to bring that customer segment into
the fold. Hyatt
announced a partnership in July with the British "Airbnb for
the rich" startup, Onefinestay.

Chesky's "we're not anti-hotel" stance was a different tune,
though, than what the home-sharing site had been
saying an hour before Chesky took the stage.

Airbnb was fighting
Prop F, a San Francisco ballot initiative that threatened to
put a cap on the nights a host could rent out his or her place on
the platform.

Before the vote, Airbnb's head of global policy, Chris Lehane,
called the measure a "twin-headed attack lead by NIMBYs and
the hotel industry."

The "No on Prop F" campaign, which Airbnb gave $8 million to
fight, even released a 15-second ad going after the New York
hotel industry for its campaign contributions.

After it won the election, Airbnb paraded its victory against an
"extreme, hotel-industry backed initiative."

In a phone call with reporters (an hour before Chesky took the
stage), the same rhetoric was repeated by its policy director
Lehane, in harsh contrast to Chesky's "we're super friendly"
relationship.